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Federal fraud charges for five in Wilkes-Barre

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Wilkes-Barre officials suspended a city police officer Friday, a day after the officer and four others were charged with taking out fraudulent loans in a bank fraud scheme.

Wilkes-Barre Mayor Thomas M. Leighton announced Friday that Officer Jason Anthony, 34, has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the criminal charges filed against him.

Anthony and his co-defendants — including a former police officer, an embattled towing contractor and a credit union employee — are accused of using stolen identities and forged signatures to take out fraudulent loans from the Wilkes-Barre City Employees Federal Credit Union so some could pocket the money.

The Citizens’ Voice, a Times-Shamrock newspaper, learned Friday that Amanda Magda, 30, the assistant manager at the credit union resigned about a week before the indictments were handed down.

Magda had been employed for 5½ years, according to Dominick P. Pannunzio, an attorney for the credit union. Pannunzio said the credit union is not releasing Magda’s salary, citing personnel issues.

The police department hired Anthony on Feb. 4, 2005. His base salary is $60,654. Anthony on Friday waived his right to a hearing to decide his employment status.

In a press release Thursday afternoon, Leighton said police Chief Gerard Dessoye has been aware of the ongoing investigation and has been cooperating with the FBI.

Leighton said Thursday that the “actions of a few individuals should not cast a negative light on the hardworking, law abiding officers employed in the city’s police department.”

All five were released Thursday following their indictments and not guilty pleas. Jury selection is set to begin 9:30 a.m. Oct. 27 at the federal courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.

The indictments allege that the defendants — individually or by aiding and abetting one another — secured loans from the credit union fraudulently to obtain cash. They did this, authorities say, by using false collateral, the stolen identities of others who were not aware of loans in their names, and through forgery.

Around March 23, 2012, Ninotti, using the name of another credit union member, applied for and obtained a loan for $25,086.96 and claimed it would be used to buy a 2011 Dodge Ram. The indictment said Glodzik provided a vehicle identification number in order to make it appear the vehicle was being used as collateral to secure the loan in order to pocket the money. Magda is accused of fraudulently signing her name as a witness to the signature of another credit union member, which was needed to help secure the loan for Ninotti.

Around March 13, the indictment said, Glodzik “did knowingly attempt to persuade Tino Ninotti to fabricate a false lawful explanation for unlawful conduct in connection with the commission of bank fraud.”

According to a separate indictment, Magda and Anthony approached various individuals this year requesting that they secure a credit union loan in the individuals’ names in order to get cash.

They then refinanced the original loans or added debt to them without the individuals’ knowledge, authorities said.

On at least one occasion, the conspirators paid cash to an individual in exchange for permission to use the individual’s name and credit, the indictment said.

On Jan. 15, Anthony forged the signature of a woman, who was unaware a loan for $7,159.30 was secured in her name, authorities said.

That same day, according to the indictment, Magda signed a loan document as a witness to the signature of the woman who “did not actually sign the document.”

Beginning around June 20, 2011, Serafin, a credit union member who is not named as involved with the others indicted Thursday, executed a scheme “to obtain moneys, funds, credits, assets, securities and other property” of the credit union under false pretenses by “unlawfully using the name of another individual to obtain a loan from the credit union for $10,000.” City spokeswoman Liza Prokop confirmed Serafin is not a city employee.

The Wilkes-Barre City Employees Federal Credit Union serves employees of Wilkes-Barre, Wilkes-Barre Township and Plains Township and their families. The credit union has more than 2,200 members and controls assets worth $41.8 million, according to a financial performance report filed with the National Credit Union Administration, the federal credit union regulator.

The credit union is not a part of city government, but several current and former city employees serve on its board of directors. The agency leases an office on the first floor of Wilkes-Barre City Hall for $750 per month, according to city records.

In March, The Citizens’ Voice revealed the FBI was looking at possible connections among Wilkes-Barre police officers, auto loans and Glodzik as part of a wider federal investigation in the city.

Federal regulators descended on the credit union March 12, two days after its manager was found dead at his Bear Creek Township home.

Agents wanted the credit union’s director, Jim Payne — who is Madga’s uncle — to appear before a federal grand jury in Scranton, according to the law enforcement officials, but Payne was found dead at his Bear Creek Township home March 10 — the day before his scheduled testimony. Luzerne County Coroner Bill Lisman ruled the death a suicide.

FBI agents visited the credit union three times in March and requested “any and all documents” the credit union had for a group of individuals, but the requests did not give any indication what they were looking for, Pannunzio had said. The FBI requested a series of records during the visits to the credit union, but did not seize anything, the attorney said.

The night of Payne’s death, according to law enforcement officials, the FBI interrogated Ninotti, who left the Wilkes-Barre police department on a disability claim Jan. 8 after 11½ years on the force. Prokop said she couldn’t say whether Ninotti’s pension would be affected, noting the attorney for the Police Relief Pension Board will have to review his police pension.

jseibel@citizensvoice.com

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